Robin Söderling Works Hard to Defend his Title at the Swedish Open
Robin Söderling, the only Swedish player in the top 100 in the ATP rankings, is best known for reaching the French Open finals back to back in 2009 and 2010. In both tournaments, he managed to defeat top ranked tennis stars Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
In 2009, the Swede was able to defeat defending champion Nadal and became known as the first and only player to defeat the Majorcan at the French Open. And if that accomplishment wasn't enough, Söderling managed to do the same to Roger Federer in the following year, knocking Federer out of the French Open and ending the Swiss tennis star’s record streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals.
Prior to this year's Swedish Open, Söderling became the 2009 Swedish Open winner when he achieved a straight set win 6-4, 7-6(4) over Juan Monaco from Argentina after almost 90 minutes of battle. The win gave the 25 year-old player his fourth career ATP World Tour title, as well as his first title from his home country.
“It is a dream come true to win this tournament," said Söderling at the time. "I think I played my best match of the tournament today."
"It’s very big to win a title in Sweden, I have always dreamt of winning this tournament ever since I came down to Bastad to watch as a junior. Now I have won it, it is a great feeling. My confidence is very high for the next few tournaments, as I have beaten very good players."
And as this year’s Swedish Open tournament progresses, Söderling was able to survive almost being knocked out of the tournament by Italian Andreas Seppi, but still managed to advance to the Swedish Open semi-finals.
Söderling outplayed Seppi in just over two hours after Seppi advanced in the tournament after beating Potito Starace 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7) in a centre court Italian match-up.
During the match, the Italian Seppi managed to take the first set after breaking Söderling with the score at 2-2. The Monaco resident, who hit 13 aces during the game, managed to win the second set even though at one point he was trailing the match 3-5. The third set was even closer, with the possibility of both players potentially winning the match, before Söderling was able to win the tie-break.
"It's nice to have won without playing well," said Söderling after the match. "At the end I didn't do anything special, he just missed."
Previously in the tournament, Söderling was taken to three sets by fellow countryman Andreas Vinciguerra in the second round of the tournament. However, during the game Söderling was able to break Vinciguerra's serve in the second and eighth games of the match to take the first set easily.
Söderling, who reached the final of the French Open on clay last month, wasn’t able to make his two match points in the second set count, when Vinciguerra won on a tie-break. However, he was able to recover and claim the third.
Söderling will next face-off with third-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, who leads the ATP with 31 wins on clay this season, and who has achieved clay-court success with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Pablo Cuevas from Uruguay.
Ferrer, who has also won the Swedish title in 2007, may prove to be a difficult challenge for Söderling, as Ferrer is also currently playing in his seventh clay-court semi-final of the year. The Spaniard also managed to defeat Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-3, 7-5, winning 12 of the last 13 points to claim his win. It looks like Söderling will be facing some stiff competition if he wants to hold onto his title.
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